On view March 5 – April 10, 2021
"As a graduate and former art student, I was thrilled at the opportunity to select works for this strong showing and layered narrative on living and creating during the most obscure time of our lives.
I’ve often said that instead of asking, ‘What is art,’ ask, ‘Why do we continue to make art,’ and you will get a much more interesting discussion. This question carries more weight now because of the lives we have lived over the past year.
We have seen the US experience a racial awakening, division among friends and family, and traditions and routines turned on their heads in order to have a better chance of survival. In the face of all of this, why make art? The selections in this exhibition are the answers to that question. They are personal, biographical, helpful, honest, intimate, and most of all, human.
An artist doesn’t always make things for other people—I suggest most artists make what they like and invite others to like it if they choose. However, this body of work is longing for connection, much like the rest of the world.
It’s a connection in the form of fun animation to make someone laugh, or through recreation of a beloved monument. It’s figures of larger women because that’s how they are. It’s a comforting pillow because you’re tired. This showing is not just a representation of what creating during this time was like, it is a roadmap of what it means to be human and of what kind of humans we can be."
– Carl Medley